Technical glitches force reruns

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Delayed elections were held in some areas of the country on Tuesday after poll equipment was made available there, while in many other areas repeated elections proceeded without a hitch.

It was reported earlier that only some isolated areas of Papua, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and East Nusa Tenggara had to delay voting scheduled for April 5.

But it turned out on Tuesday that several regions of Java and other islands were also forced to rerun voting.

In East Java, at least eight regencies and towns -- Surabaya, Sidoarjo, Gresik, Lamongan, Tuban, Sumenep, Pasuruan and Situbondo -- conducted revotes and almost 20 percent of eligible voters exercised their political rights.

"Based on a report received by the East Java Elections Commission (KPUD), as many as eight cities held fresh voting," KPUD member Arief Budiman said.

He said the elections were rerun after ballot papers were accidentally interchanged with those of other districts.

Except for Sumenep on Madura island, revotes were held because the number of punched ballot papers was more than that of registered voters, he added.

However, the rerun failed to attract voters as it took place on a working day. "Like in Sudimoro village, Tulangan subdistrict, Sidoarjo, only 80 percent of illegible voters attended the polling station," Arief said.

Similar reruns also took place at some 35 polling stations in nine regencies across Central Java, including Brebes and Boyolali, Surakarta and Karanganyar.

Voters there only elected local legislative candidates, as their votes for candidates for the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) and the House of Representatives (DPR) on Monday were considered valid.

Central Java's KPUD member Hasyim Asy'ari said that the 35 polling booths were among 85,775 others in the province.

In Yogyakarta, the disruption of the delivery of ballot papers forced the relevant authorities to rerun elections at a number of polling stations.

However, Yogyakarta's General Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) member Marzuki could not say which polling stations had to hold revotes.

"Give us the chance to recapitulate all this. We will be able to determine by Thursday which areas will, or have, rerun elections," he said.

Local KPUD chairman Suparman Marzuki said officials of polling stations had the right to determine the dates of rerun elections. "It depends on whether they are prepared or not," he added.

According to him, rerun elections must be held before April 25 at the latest. "Based on prevailing rules, revotes can be conducted 20 days after election day at the latest," Suparman argued.

But, the central KPU issued a decree on Tuesday, allowing regions only until April 9 to rerun elections so that delays to vote counting could be avoided. .

Deputy KPU chairman Ramlan Surbakti said reruns should be held as soon as possible because the results of the elections must reach his office between April 11 and April 14.

In Riau, reruns were also organized in the regencies of Rokan Hilir, Indragiri Hilir and Kota Dumai, where voters only cast ballots for local legislative councils.

"In Monday's elections, voters punched the names of legislative candidates (on the wrong ballot papers), although they did not recognize them. But later, ahead of the vote counting, election officials found out that those names did not appear on the tabulation forms," Riau's KPUD member Alwis told The Jakarta Post.

Similar reruns are planned for Wednesday in Serdang Bedagai and Tanjung Balai regencies in North Sumatra, after local political party leaders agreed on the date.

However, Medan, Labuhan Batu and Deli Serdang regencies canceled plans to hold revotes following the agreement of party leaders.

In West Nusa Tenggara, revotes will take place on Thursday at five polling stations in Central Lombok regency, while six other polling stations were yet to decide when to rerun elections.

Meanwhile, at least 27 polling stations in the regencies of West Sumba, Ngada and North Central Timor in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) held delayed elections on Tuesday after they finally received ballot papers.

In Manggarai regency, 20 other polling stations also conducted delayed elections on Monday night.

Like NTT, troubled areas of Papua and Aceh are to hold delayed voting in isolated areas, where the delivery of election materials was hampered.